engaging boards on the future of marketing
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In addition to accomplishing those goals, the visits created a new
sense of urgency about the companys need to diversify both therange of channels it used to interact with customers and the points
in the customer relationship where it would emphasize deep
engagement. The boards commitment helped overcome internal
opposition, and the company embarked on a dual program of
restructuring its channels and acquiring or partnering with third-
party providers whose services could help enrich its offerings at
various points in the customer life cycle.
The results thus far have been impressivecustomer satisfaction
has increased by 20 percentage points, market share in core services
by nearly 10, and protability has increased correspondingly.
Meanwhile, the company has continued sending its corporate direc-
tors on fact-nding trips in a variety of geographies, with the
intention of shaking up the directors thinking and encouraging them
to spot overlooked opportunities.
Such board missions can deliver unexpected insights thanks in no
small part to the diversity of experiences and perspectives that
well-chosen boards can bring to bear. When a large distribution busi-
ness concluded that it needed to change its way of engaging with
customers, it enlisted the board in the problem-solving process. The
company paired off board members and senior managers with
complementary skills and ew them to different locations, where
they visited company sales ofces and customers before later
reconvening at an offsite strategy meeting. When the full group
debriefed, its members collective experiences yielded new insights
about customer needs and the value proposition the company
was (and wasnt) offering, all of which had implications for its sales
and distribution approach.
The changing marketing environment also elevates to board agendas
items that previously might not have made it there. One example
is corporate brand management, long the domain of chief marketing
ofcers and public-relations departments. Yet against a back-
drop of social media, viral video, and the reputational threats posed
by citizen bloggers, the CEO of one North American manufac-
turer recently placed the potential for brand-changing events on the
boards agenda. This move led to a good discussion about ways to
cope. The conversation transcended traditional marketing communi-
cations and touched on the companys overall strategy, as well as its
approach to crisis response.
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Boards can also serve a valuable role in helping management to
identify and initiate benecial marketing-strategy or organiza-tional changes that would have been difcult for managers to envision
on their own, given their focus on day-to-day concerns. At a global
luxury group, for example, a board member helped management to
see the importance of dramatically increasing a key brands online
presence. The additional focus highlighted the need for big changes
including new functional skills, organizational capabilities,
and processesthat culminated in the creation of an internal brand
studio tasked with insourcing a wide range of the brands
digital activities.
Three tips for improving engagement
As these examples suggest, its too early to draw a denitive road map
for board involvement in marketing, just as its not yet possible
to draw a universal blueprint for creating superior customer engage-
ment. Still, our experience suggests a few ideas worth considering.
First, much as most boards now include a strategy day in their
calendar of meetings, we think its worth considering a customer-
engagement day to take stock of the broadest strategic implica-
tions of changes in the marketing environment and of the companys
position with customers. On such a day, the directors of another
Asia-based services company took decisive action to rethink
its premium-pricing strategy after coming to grips with big changes
under way in the customer base.
Second, its important to be mindful of the boards composition,
given the fast-changing nature of marketing. For example, including
more board members with public-sector experienceincluding
political-campaign skillscan provide valuable counsel to todays
ever-more-exposed CEOs.
Third, its important to keep board involvement strategic in nature
and clearly aimed at governance issues and notthe day-to-day
management of marketing activities. To be sure, it can be valuable
for board members with specialized expertise to provide it fairly
regularly; we know of one company thats asked an innovation guru
on the board to work closely, between meetings, with the head
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of R&D. Yet any such involvement must ultimately connect back to
the board; otherwise, theres a risk of creating a cadre of shadowmanagers. In this case, the R&D director and board member jointly
update the board on innovation efforts to ensure that it remains
plugged in.
This last example shows how CEOs are nding value in individual
board members. In this case, the value was in R&D, the lifeblood of
that company. In others, it might be in understanding new tech-
nologies shaking up consumer behavior or new geographies emerging
as priority markets. As the digital-marketing revolution continues
to unfold, senior leaders will need all the help they can get to keep
their companies on the leading edge.
Jean-Baptiste Coumauis a principal in McKinseys Paris office, Ben Fletcher
is an associate principal in the Sydney office, and Tom Frenchis a director in
the Boston office.
Copyright 2013 McKinsey & Company. All rights
reserved. We welcome your comments on this
article. Please send them to quarterly_comments@
mckinsey.com.